Since the beginning of 2010, science, technology and innovation have been playing an increasingly important role in the socio-economic development of Vietnam.
Today, the state is still the biggest funder of research, with the lion’s share of the budget allocated to government R&D institutes. The national gross expenditure on R&D (GERD) in 2016 was about 0.21 per cent of the country’s GDP, but nearly 81 per cent of that was accounted for by the public sector.
As a result, the Government of Vietnam has recently been focusing on a few key strategic tasks to reshape its innovation ecosystem, including:
- Reforming the management and operational mechanisms of organisations involved in the science and technology (S&T) sector;
- Increasing state expenditure levels and prioritising expenditure on national S&T initiatives and products, including promoting firms investing in S&T development;
- Linking the development of a strong S&T national market with the enforcement of a law on intellectual property, to boost technology R&D and encourage innovation;
- Enhancing the international integration of Vietnamese science and technology products and services.
